Space News

A lot of asteroids pass near Earth every year. Many are the size of a house, make close flybys and zoom out of the headlines. 2004 BL86 is a bit different. On Monday evening January 26th, it will become the largest aster...

Mark Bitterman abruptly left ULA after just more than three years as vice president of government affairs. The post Bitterman Abruptly Leaves ULA after Three Years as Head of Government Affairs appeared first on SpaceNew...

Nearly twelve hours after the threat of a leak of toxic ammonia forced the crew into a middle of the night evacuation from the US side of the International Space Station this morning (Jan. 14) and a hatch closure, top le...

The 1-ton Curiosity rover began conducting "mini-drill" tests on a rock dubbed Mojave this week, to assess the stone's suitability for a full-up drilling and sample-collection operation.

Endless blinding white ice as far as the eye can see. This is the common scene from the window of planes delivering researchers to Antarctica. However, this is not always the case. While there are mountain ranges and val...

Solar flares can release the energy equivalent of many atomic bombs, enough to cut out satellite communications and damage power grids on Earth, 93 million miles away. The flares arise from twisted magnetic fields that o...

Early Friday morning, if skies are clear, you have a good chance to catch sight of a lovely waning crescent moon pairing off with the ringed wonder of the solar system: the planet Saturn.

Mark Bitterman left ULA after more than three years as vice president of government affairs. The post Bitterman Out as ULA’s Top Lobbyist appeared first on SpaceNews.com.

Dear Radio Galaxy Zoo volunteers, Thanks again for all your help so far in classifying radio galaxies through RGZ. We’re rapidly approaching our 1 millionth classification, probably by the end of this week (Jan 15-17) ...

A study by astrophysicists at the University of Toronto suggests that exoplanets - planets outside our solar system - are more likely to have liquid water and be more habitable than we thought.

Could there be another Pluto-like object out in the far reaches of the Solar System? How about two or more? Earlier this week, we discussed a recent paper from planet-hunter Mike Brown, who said that while there aren't l...

This image taken on January 13, 2015 from the Suomi NPP satellite's VIIRS instrument shows the Great Lakes and surrounding areas....

Most large galaxies harbor central supermassive black holes with masses equivalent to millions, or even billions, of Suns. Some, like the one in the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, lie quiet. Others, known as quasars, ch...

The two big space movies of 2014 -- "The Theory of Everything" and "Interstellar" -- have both been nominated for five Academy Awards.

Alien planets that orbit close to their parent stars may be at high risk of the ultimate hot-cold scenario, with one side stuck in permanent daylight while the other shrouded in everlasting night.

Two men are about to spend a year at the orbiting International Space Station, in an experiment that will test the limits of the human body and mind.

I've written a few times* about how the aurorae--the northern (and southern) lights--aren't just static or slow-moving displays but can positively flash and flap in real time, moving in waves that take less than a second...

NASA's SMAP's (Soil Moisture Active Passive) large antenna will give let the satellite measure wide swaths of land. Obtaining worldwide soil moisture measurements every 2 or 3 days, SMAP may boost crop productivity, prot...

A telemetry failure during the otherwise successful Dec. 18 launch of a Europeanized Soyuz rocket raises questions about whether European governments will trust the vehicle to launch Galileo. The post Soyuz Glitches Shak...

"This excess of objects with unexpected orbital parameters makes us believe that some invisible forces are altering the distribution of the orbital elements of extreme trans-Neptunian objects and we consider that the mos...

The year 2014 ranks as Earth's warmest since 1880, according to two separate analyses by NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists.

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft recently began its long-awaited, historic encounter with Pluto. The spacecraft is entering the first of several approach phases that culminate July 14 with the first close-up flyby of the d...